India, Pakistan escalate war of words at UN

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has delivered a blistering riposte to India’s renewed terror mantra against Pakistan by spotlighting the “saffron terror” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu supremacist paramilitary volunteers group which has inspired Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shaped his political ideology.

Bilawal called Modi “Butcher of Gujarat”, a nickname he had earned for overseeing a pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister. Bilawal’s denunciation of Modi outraged India and triggered a call for a nationwide protest by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I would like to remind the Minister of External Affairs of India that Osama Bin Laden is dead but the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the prime minister of India. He was banned from entering this country until he became prime minister,” Bilawal said on Friday after India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar accused Pakistan of being the “epicenter of terrorism” for “harbouring Osama bin Laden”.

“This is the prime minister of the RSS and the foreign minister of the RSS. What is the RSS? The RSS draws its inspiration from Hitler’s SS,” he added. The verbal slugfest happened on the sidelines of an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Stung by Bilawal’s criticism, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson said it was a “new low even for Pakistan”, while quipping that “’Made in Pakistan’ terrorism had to stop”. The BJP said it would stage nationwide protest on Saturday against the “shameful and insulting” statement of the Pakistani foreign minister.

Bilawal also told the council that Pakistan had “lost far more lives to terrorism than India has”. Why would Pakistan ever want to perpetuate terrorism and make “our own people suffer”, he asked. “I am the foreign minister of Pakistan, Pakistan’s foreign minister is a victim of terrorism as the son of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.”

“He [Modi] was banned from entering this country [the United States],” he continued, “these are the prime minister and foreign minister of the RSS [a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation]”. He added: “The RSS draws its inspiration from Hitler’s SS [the Nazi Party’s combat branch, Schutzstaffel].”

APS massacre anniversary

Later, while addressing an event to commemorate the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar at the UN Headquarters, Bilawal warned that Pakistan would not tolerate cross-border terrorism by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or other terrorist groups.

“Pakistan will not tolerate such cross-border terrorism by the TTP or other terrorist groups, like the BLA, which are also receiving financial and other support from hostile quarters. We reserve the right to take direct action against them,” the foreign minister said.

The event, hosted by Pakistan as part of the UN’s Office of Counter Terrorism’s “Remembrance of the Victims of Terrorism” campaign, started with a one-minute silence. The event brought together the UN member states, victims, experts, academics, civil society members and representatives of law-enforcement agencies.

On December 16, 2014, 132 children and eight teachers and staff at the School died in the attack and several others were injured. The attack was claimed by the TTP, an entity listed as a terrorist organisation by the Security Council and many member states.

“This terrorist attack was particularly heinous because the clear aim of the terrorists was to kill children. In this sense, it was a targeted attack designed to deal a grievous blow to the morale of the people of Pakistan,” the foreign minister said.

The shock of the APS massacre mobilised the Pakistani nation to eliminate all terrorists from their soil. Massive military operations were undertaken to cleanse the frontiers of the TTP and associated terrorist groups, he added. “Pakistan’s operations were successful. Our territory was cleared of terrorists,” he said.

The brutal nature of the TTP, and its callous targeting of children in the APS attack, and other crimes should also reinforce the world community’s determination to combat and defeat the TTP, along with other terrorist organisations, like IS-K, operating in Afghanistan, he stressed.

Bilawal told the participants that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies had “solid proof” of financial and organisational support and direction provided to the TTP.

“We have shared a comprehensive dossier with the secretary-general and the Security Council, containing concrete evidence of such external support to the TTP and other terrorist groups operating against Pakistan.”

The foreign minister said Pakistan had expected that the new authorities in Kabul would be able to convince or constrain the TTP from conducting cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistan as they had promised to do in the Doha Agreement and in subsequent policy declarations.

“However, endeavours towards this end appear to have failed. The TTP seems to have been emboldened to declare a “war” against Pakistan. Its attacks have intensified. We need to eliminate the safe havens of these terrorists,” the foreign minister said.

Bilawal also stressed the need to cut off the TTP’s sources of financing and sponsorship; and to target and hold accountable individuals and entities responsible for terrorist attacks or for sponsoring and financing such attacks. He assured Pakistan’s support to the international community in realising these objectives.

At the commemorative event, the foreign minister read out the last word of APS Principal Tahira Qazi. “They are my children and I am their mother,” she uttered before being burnt alive by the terrorists in front of her pupils as she struggled to protect them.

Deputy Under-Secretary-General and Representative of the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism Raffi Gregorian said the APS attack had shocked the world. He said there was no justification for attacking children particularly when they were there to learn.

Among notable speakers included Ahmed Nawaz, a survivor of the APS terrorist attack, President of Oxford Union, and Dr Fatima Ali Haider, a therapist whose husband and son were killed in a sectarian incident in 2013. After the APS attack, she co-founded The Grief Directory in 2015.

A short video developed by the Pakistan Mission was also played at the event. Brochures were also distributed amongst the member states to apprise them of the horrific incident. At the end, Pakistan’s Ambassador Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram gave the concluding remarks.